


boo!

by dreamclub



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Fictober, Multi, Straight up fluff, brief reference to panic attack, hyuck works at a giant haunted attractions company and mark gets scared on the ride, mentions of yukhei johnny yuta renjun jisung yeri and mina, mildly scary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 00:10:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16230158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamclub/pseuds/dreamclub
Summary: Donghyuck loves working on a haunted hayride, but normally when guests cause trouble they’re hitting someone or pissing themselves. Not having a panic attack and needing to be covertly taken off of the ride.Still, he can’t complain. It turns out the boy is pretty cool.





	boo!

**Author's Note:**

> prompts are ‘in the distance’ and ‘torture’.
> 
> got awful news in the middle of this and had a brief complete and total meltdown so if its bad sorry feel free to put out a hit on me
> 
> twit: redxuxi  
> cc: curiouscat.me/dreamclub

Renjun stuck his head into the dressing room, clown makeup still running down his face like it had been when he left. Like his face was melting off. A lot of talented people worked at Seoul Scares, and among them Renjun was one of the best, at least at makeup. Watching him switch from cool and apathetic into a manically laughing or horrifically shrieking character was always interesting as well.

“Five minutes,” he called, and once he saw Jeno’s unrealistic bruise he sighed and came in to help.

Hyuck didn’t have much to do. Luckily, he got to wear a mask; he had the tendency to break and laugh at some rider’s reactions, so he hid it behind plastic. Today he’d gotten the permanently crying baby mask, coupled with an all-black outfit and bloody chainsaw. Terrifying. And slightly comical, if you thought about it for too long. He tried not to.

Usually he worked the hayride, which was by far the best attraction. There was little to no risk of people getting handsy, unlike on the regular attractions where the unfortunate jumpscare workers got punched almost daily. It was more likely he’d go deaf from the screaming or accidentally fall off of the ride.

“Let’s get it!” Jeno whooped, and Hyuck followed him, swinging his prop from side to side. 

A bloody mime and a crying baby walk into a haunted hayride. Hyuck’s normal Friday night sounded so surreal.

When they got outside, screaming could be heard from all directions, especially from the corn maze. Small booths selling spooky treats were scattered around, and lines for all of the haunts were snaking dangerously around the park.

Before any of the patrons could see them they snuck around the building to the hidden path that would take them to the hayride entrance. Hyuck wouldn’t get on until around halfway through; he was part of a fake kidnapping scene. Buzzed with adrenaline, the walk never seemed that long.

Walking through the woods to his post was always moderately terrifying, what with the sounds of screaming and piped-in fog from other attractions filling the air. Usually he had others to make the trek with him, or sometimes was lucky enough to catch the golf cart out, but he must’ve gotten a late start because Yukhei and Johnny were nowhere to be found. 

Eventually he made it to the broken-down car he’d be hiding by.

Yukhei and Johnny were already sitting on the ground behind it, hidden from view almost entirely. They jumped out and tried to scare him, but they’d done it so many times he was barely phased, letting out a tiny squeak and getting inside of the car.

Fortunately, it was fairly obvious when the hayride was approaching due to the constant loud screaming, cursing, and general noisiness. Haunted attractions were definitely not the most quiet profession. Hyuck quietly waited for his cue.

When the hayride pulled up, Mina tried to start the car, triggering the pre-recorded exaggerated stalling noises. She exited the car and went to pop the hood, looking for all the world like an innocent woman on her way home from work.

After a tense moment, Yukhei and Johnny popped up and cornered her, screaming obscenities and waving their weapons around threateningly. Although Hyuck knew they were both big teddy bears at heart, he would’ve been scared in Mina’s place, even if it was fake. They were good at their job, and big enough to be physically imposing.

Mina made a break for it and tried to scramble onto the hayride, just like she did every night. Begging for someone, anyone, to help her. Sometimes she’d make it onto the ride, some nights she’d just barely manage to scramble up; always, she was kidnapped.

Johnny followed her onto the truck, laughing mockingly the entire time. “If you try to help, you’re next.”

A chorus of screams followed. Hyuck couldn’t see well enough to know exactly what was going on, but evidently it was something scary. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Yukhei start to walk up, tapping his bloodied bat on his freakishly large hand. He banged it against the side of the truck, clanging against the wood, earning a few screams.

“I’m not scared of you!” a voice echoed over the yelling, the teenager moving to protect Mina. Johnny did something that resulted in a quick and panicked, “Okay I am! I’m scared!”

Johnny picked Mina up, kicking and screaming, and handed her down to Yukhei, who had made his way off of the ride. He threw her over his shoulder and disappeared into the forest. In the midst of the chaos Donghyuck had silently made his way around the truck, climbing up onto the rail.

“Who’s next!” he yelled from behind someone, out of flailing-distance. He liked his face intact, thank you very much. Nearly everyone screamed from the jumpscare.

Johnny remained on board, stomping around imposingly as the ride started moving again. Yeri, who was planted in the audience, started to tremble and hide behind the person next to her. Her sobbing was incredibly convincing.

“Are you scared?” Hyuck asked, leaning in close to a grown man’s face. He nodded, pale as a sheet.

Johnny started terrorizing someone else as they pulled up to a field where they’d offload Mina. Looking for his next victim, he spotted a boy who was shaking. It wasn’t unusual for people to get so terrified that they looked like they may pass out, but something with him seemed off.

Unshed tears lined his eyes. His fists clenched. Deep, gasping breaths tore from his lungs. It looked like a panic attack.

As quietly as possible, Hyuck let Johnny know that he was going to make sure the guy was okay. Johnny covered by whirling around and pointing at a girl, laughing wickedly, and saying, “He said he thinks _you_ should be next, sweetheart. What’dya say?”

As non-threateningly as he could he made his way over to the boy. Still, his eyes went wide, and he leaned back in his seat as if he was contemplating jumping off and making a run for it. Hyuck held his chainsaw as far away as possible as he neared the boy, taking two steps in the small ride.

He got in the boy’s face as if he was going to yell, but instead spoke into his ear, “We can pretend to choose you and take you back to the start.”

“Why?” he said, voice shaking and almost so quiet it wasn’t audible over the screams.

Johnny yelled something and evoked a panicked cry from a girl next to them. Mina started yelling at him. Multiple people were in tears. The boy’s friends made jokes amongst themselves to hide the fear.

“Because you’re having a panic attack. Nod if you want to go.” Hyuck backed up and swung his chainsaw menacingly.

The boy nodded.

“You think you’re tough, huh?” Hyuck sneered at the boy, getting everyone’s attention, “Trying to protect the pretty girl? A big, bad man?”

He grabbed the boy by his shoulder, too gentle for his role, hauling him up. The truck screeched to a stop. Techincally physical contact was allowed, but he hated getting handsy with the guests.

Johnny walked over, demonic clown mask eerily still as he circled the boy. “Looks like we need to teach you a lesson.”

Hyuck grabbed both of his hands behind his back and Johnny produced zip-ties, loosely keeping them together. Mina tried not to look too confused. They ushered him off, stumbling down the steps, as Johnny yelled something threatening at the rest of the passengers.

As soon as they got off the truck peeled away. The boy heaved in a few breaths as they approached the tree line, visibily shaken.

“I’ve gotta quickchange, are you good here?” Johnny asked, taking off his mask and pushing a hand through his sweaty hair.

Hyuck nodded and Johnny left, leaving the two of them alone in the dark. Flashing lights from the clown maze illuminated the distance, and stars cast the boy in a white glow. Screams sounded. In the distance. Not quite loud enough to bother him.

The boy looked more on edge. He seemed to be around Hyuck’s age, with straight black hair and a nervous smile. He fidgeted with his hands.

“Thanks for that,” he said, visibly calmer, “I’m Mark, by the way.”

Hyuck took off his mask. “It was no problem, really. I’ve dealt with way worse.”

“Yeah?” Mark asked.

“Last week, this kid Jisung pissed himself when Johnny scared him. It was hilarious. And awful.”

“Park Jisung?” Mark laughed, only stopping when someone screamed VERY loudly from the hayride.

Hyuck took out his phone and used it as a flashlight, illuminating the dirt and leaves covering the floor. Someone’s lost hat sat on the ground, and multiple food wrappers littered the foliage. “Please tell me you don’t know him.”

Mark laughed again and confirmed that he did, in fact, know Park Jisung; they attended the same dance school, apparently. When he went to grab his phone to search for a picture of them together, he blanched. Patted all of his pockets. Looked around wide eyed.

“Shit! Shit,” he exclaimed and then whispered, panic evident in his voice, “I left my phone and wallet with my friend.”

If Hyuck had known him better, he would’ve called him a dumbass. They’d only just met, though, so instead he offered to let him stay in the cast room and then meet his friends at the end of the attractions. Besides, he could probably use some water and food anyway. And a place to sit. Panic attacks were never the most fun to recover from, even if they were mild.

“I promise I won’t murder you, but the only way back is through the forest,” Hyuck said.

Mark grinned at him, “Sounds exactly like something a murderer would say.”

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” Hyuck pointed the chainsaw at him and then started the long trek back, Mark in tow.

-

By the time they’d made it back to the dressing rooms, Hyuck was panting and Mark was starting to look like he wished he’d just stayed on the ride. Around halfway through they’d started trying to scare each other. Repeatedly. And in incredibly annoying ways. Once Mark had screamed in the middle of his sentence, startling Hyuck so badly he’d tripped over a rogue branch and fell to the ground.

Somehow in the fall the chainsaw had turned on. The noise scared Mark so much that he fell, too, laughing and shrieking. Hyuck hoped nobody could hear them from the ride path. 

“I think most of the cast should be working right now, if anyone’s in there just say you got sick on the ride, okay?” Hyuck turned to Mark, who’d at some point put his baby mask on and tried to jump around the corner to scare him. Hyuck just rolled his eyes and went inside.

Chenle was the only person in the room, curled up on the affectionately named Blood Couch. Prime real estate for naps, lounging, and comfortably applying makeup. Thus it had a disgusting amount of dried fake blood caked to it, which no cleansing could remove completely.

Tea in hand, he barely looked up when they’d entered. Chenle’s main job was to scream, which meant his throat was usually pretty shredded. Even in school he tried to keep quiet in October. Scaring was quite taxing on him. 

“Where’s Taeyong?” Hyuck asked, putting his chainsaw back in the prop closet.

Chenle snorted a laugh at that, “Some kid pissed himself in the corn maze, Tae went to get him pants.”

Yuta was covering a shift tonight, so it made perfect sense. He’d retired from scaring after a particularly nasty hit but continued to stick around to do makeup and costuming; unfortunately one of the members got so sick they couldn’t come in, and he last minute had to fill in.

Naturally stoic and vaguely frightening, he just had to crouch in a corner and stare blankly to scare people. 

“Classic Yuta,” Hyuck said. Chenle’s resulting nod confirmed his theory.

Mark cleared his throat loudly from his spot in the doorway, Hyuck’s mask hanging limply from his hand.

“Oh! Chenle, meet Mark,” Hyuck gestured between the two of them.

Mark waved and then said, “People piss themselves often enough that you keep spare pants lying around?”

Chenle laughed at that, though it came out more as a strangled honk. Halfway through getting Mark a cup of water, Hyuck nearly spilled the entire thing on himself at the sound. That, of course, prompted more laughter.

“Working here is always crazy,” Hyuck said, rooting around in the bare cupboards for the party pack of chips he _knew_ Taeyong stashed for emergencies.

Chenle nodded in agreement. His phone rang.

He got up and went into one of the dressing stalls to answer it, leaving the couch open for grabs. Hyuck raced over and flopped onto it, sinking into the scratchy fabric comfortably. Much more hesitantly, Mark followed.

“How do you do this all the time?” Mark asked. “Scare people, I mean.”

Hyuck thought for a moment. It was a hard question to answer; he wasn’t perverse or sadistic or keen on hearing people cry. So why did he do his job? Why did he take it so seriously?

“For a lot of people it’s a cathartic experience, and getting to know I helped someone let go is a good feeling,” Hyuck explained.

Mark ate his chips loudly, offering the pack to Hyuck after a moment. Chenle came back in before he could reply, looking distressed.

“Yukhei made a little girl cry and he’s so upset he has to go home, so I’ve got to cover his shift.” Chenle rooted around in the costume closet.

Hyuck said, “Sucks to suck! What is he on?”

“Torture scene, with all of the blood.” Chenle pulled out a stained lab coat and a pair of blue, plastic gloves. Size small. He had really, really tiny hands.

Hurriedly, he shoved on the clothes, grabbing his phone before rushing out of the door.

“You work at a place where the word ‘torture scene’ is thrown around, yet you still enjoy it?” Mark looked at him incredulously. 

“I’m _broke_ , Mark.”

“And now you’re a glorified clown for money!”

“Glorified clown?” Hyuck asked, glaring at Mark, “I make people cry!”

“Yeah! Like a sad clown! The opposite of a clown!”

Hyuck stood up and marched to the prop closet, pulling out some sort of water gun half full with a sloshing liquid. Questionably full of liquid, actually. What scene was it even from?

After half a second of contemplation, he pointed it at Mark, who immediately put his chip-dusted hands up in surrender.

-

“Your friends should be getting out around here,” Hyuck gestured to the exit of the final clown maze.

Technically his shift had ended an hour ago, but he was enjoying teasing Mark and felt oddly responsible for keeping him in one piece and out of trouble.

“You don’t have to wait, you know. I’ve caused enough trouble,” Mark said, suddenly embarrassed. 

“Like I said before, I’ve seen worse. Been through worse.”

Mark still didn’t look too convinced. A man carried his screaming daughter past them, a girl who couldn’t have been more than six but had the lungs of a 25 year old opera singer.

“Look, it’s me on the hayride,” Mark pointed at the kid, entirely too self aware.

“Hey, you didn’t actually cry,” Hyuck said. “On the first day of my job, I got so scared mid-performance that I burst into tears.”

He hated telling the story and would rather die than admit it to anyone else, but he had blubbered like a baby. 

“What were you doing?”

Hyuck grimaced, “I was the patient in the torture scene. My crying looked so realistic that I had to do the same scene for two weeks straight.”

Instead of cracking a joke, Mark looked sympathetic. The doors to the maze burst open, the first of many sobbing people stumbling out. Neon lights flashed within, mounds of bubblings flowing out. Hyuck hated clowns. Even after three years of working at a haunt he hadn’t been entirely desensitized.

“That torture scene was what really freaked me out, actually.”

“Really? It wasn’t my amazing acting skills?”

Mark laughed. Hyuck thought that maybe he should become a comedian, because hearing people crack up was much more satisfying than hearing them scream and curse and cry. 

“Oh! There’s one of my friends.” Mark pointed to a boy who had somehow emerged from the maze smiling. 

“Oh, alright, cool. I’ll see you, then?” Hyuck tried not to look too disappointed. He practically acted for a living, so he hoped his attempt wasn’t too pathetic.

Mark glanced over at his friend again and said, “Would you mind waiting for like, a second?”

Hyuck said he wouldn’t and Mark immediately jogged away to his friend, who started flailing his arms and making wild faces as he told a story. He almost lost it when the guy mimed honking a clown nose. Mark had funny friends. Weird, funny friends. Who the hell walked out of a clown maze _smiling_?

Mark came back four minutes later (Hyuck counted) with a phone and wallet in his hand.

“Could I have your number?” he held out his phone. “I need to repay you for those chips.”

“I guess so. But next time I see you I won’t be covered in fake blood, so prepare for that.”

“Who knows if I’ll still like you without all of the blood?” Mark teased.

Hyuck pointedly ignored the ‘like you’ part in favor of saying, “You’ll be blinded by my angelic beauty.”

Mark’s other friends stumbled out, holding each other and gasping. He waved goodbye and walked over towards them, screaming when a clown popped his head out of the maze and began chasing them around the exit queue. From the looks of his sinister smile, it was Jeno. Classic Jeno.


End file.
